Might be a stupid idea...

[MEP001]

I've been wondering about offering a "lady bay" at a wash I'm involved with. It would have lower pressure with a bigger tip, a lightweight bay hose, maybe a longer foam brush handle because women are statistically shorter. Does this seem like a good idea or a waste of time? What else might help make the bay easier to use?

 

[edredtop]

I have a 6 bay with one bay advertised as "our low pressure bay" set up with a 2507 tip and 800 psi. that has quite a following.
Senior citizens, moms, parents with kids that let them wash, etc. are frequent users.

*I'd say give it a try but would avoid giving your bay a gender or you might get a 6'4", 285 lb. "lady" asking where all the pressure is.

 

[Greg_T]

I like the idea of a bay with low pressure, easier manual handling etc.

I think in the modern era that non-gender labelling might be better - agreed with edredtop.

We have a simple 3 bay, and the layout tends to lends all large & filthy vehicles to our big bay, and the smaller & cleaner vehicles towards one particular bay. Reading this post, it also gets me thinking about a "low pressure bay" or similar.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

Interesting thought. I ran it by upper management(the wife) and she said she should love it. She's all of 5ft(don't call her short, just the rest of us are overly tall) and 110lbs and she HATES self serves because the pressure wears her out. She did agree that calling it a lady bay is probably going to get "some over-sensitive bitch" (her words) all worked up. Depending on where you're at you could get a ton of unwanted attention from local "activists" and concerned media for being such an intolerant, insensitive neanderthal. The "low pressure bay" moniker would probably get some of the folks who treat their car finish like fine china.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

I think high pressure bays, low pressure bays, mudder bays, etc are all good ideas.
But I choose to not do any of them.
My reasoning is that it is probably good PR & marketing, but would probably have a negative impact on maximizing capacity utilization over time, which translates directly to profitability.
I think if my utilization was spread out evenly over time, and I had plenty of capacity for busy days, then it might work really well. But I dont. I know that the majority of my profits come on busy days, and I would not want to have bay(s) "set aside" for a minority of customers. Many come to my wash for the pressure+soap, they would definitely avoid a low pressure bay.
I say minority because I used to think that some elderly customers did not know you could pull the trigger for high pressure - so I talk to them, and they generally say no, I know that, I can handle the lower pressure better.
So the low pressure bay is arguably solving a non existent problem, all of my bays already have that option.

NB, these specific thoughts are specifically based on my wash, my demographics, etc. This is definitely a case of ymmv.

 

[mac]

I would keep the pressure up(my bays are at 1600psi) and put in heavy duty two handed wands. No one answer to this. What works in Fargo won’t fly in south TX.

 

[MEP001]

I never planned on calling it a "lady bay," it was just a moniker to help with what I'm looking to do.

The wash is seven bays and is underperforming, so there's plenty of room to experiment.

I wouldn't just lower the pressure, I would put a larger tip as well as make any other improvements to make the bay easier to use.